I happened to find all the videos extremely interesting and sadly not so surprising. The only video I had seen before was The Stanford Prison Experiment in a Psychology class and I never linked it with racism. It’s clear to me now that it can be viewed in the context of racial difference, racial privilege and racial oppression; the guards are the oppressors and the prisoners were the oppressed. In our society we can look at it as whites are the oppressors and non-whites are the oppressed in the slightest ways.
The video shows that once a person has the power, no matter how good or bad of a person they are they will do what they are told even if it means hurting another. While watching the video one person had stated that “the evil place won over the good people” which is so true. The guards and the prisoners entered this prison as equal people, all white males. When the guards were given the suit, the wooden baton and aviator’s power arose. Some guards used this power and treated the prisoners very harshly while other guards didn’t have the strength to this. Those guards that didn’t want to hurt these prisoners didn’t do anything about it; they just sat back and watched but never spoke up. Some of the prisoners spoke up, but most didn’t. It’s so true in our society today that when we see another in harm we won’t speak up, but then again after watching those racism videos people spoke up when a non-white person was the criminal. It’s sad and hard to admit as a white person that racism does occur whether or not anyone admits it. Whites do have power maybe not so much as way back but we still do and it’s sad to see what a “good” person can do when they have power. From watching this video I know that standing up for yourself isn’t as easy as it sounds.
i agree with your point that may be rising up the voice as an oppressed one isn't that easy and also not easily heard. No one wants to get in trouble by jumping up in another's problem in today's world so they just see like silent observers whats going around.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point that it's sad to see what a good person can do just because they are given the power. It amazed me that these people, who were just normal college students no older than us acted like this. It's also sad because when someone sees something that's racist, even if you aren't racist, you get defensive about it. I've had experiences like that and I agree that it's a lot harder to stand up for yourself.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to me that this had been viewed in psychology classes without any talk of how this could relate to not only racism but systems of white supremacy that dominate our culture that control the military and prisons and the earth. yet i am not surprised as some people believe that psychology is only part of white supremacy.
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